amy111

We recently went to pyxis on our floor. We use it for all medications, except refrigerated meds also. Everyone here really loves it. We only pull for one patient at a time. It has helped track med errors, reduce lost charges and we no longer have to wait for Pharmacy to deliver meds to the floor. We have BioID (fingerprint login) however it is not actually a record of your fingerprint. The information from several points on your pad is encrypted into the system. We have had a few people who have had difficulty logging in, so our pharmacy has them log in with a password.

Our hospital has Pyxis in the ER which is a non-profile unit. When we get a John Doe patient the nursing staff enters "male, seizure" (according to their dx) without a patient number. This might seem trivial, but the DEA frowns on a narcotic being charged out to a "generic" patient, because we have no way of linking that name to the patient number when it is finally assigned by admitting. Thus, we have cocaine given to "male, seizure" in our computer system. I am curious how other ERs handle this problem. Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!!!

We started self scheduling on my unit about a year ago. Basically, we have divided the staff RNs into three groups. A & B are full/part time. Group C is casual part time staff. Groups A & B alternate first sign up every other month as well as the staff rotating within the groups themselves. This ensures that the same people are not the first to sign up every schedule. We work a combination of 8 and 12 hour shifts. Staff signs up according to their assigned shift- days are day and evening, nights are night and evening. Our schedule runs 4 weeks. The sign up sheets have 5 lines for each shift. The staff signs up according to their rotation and each staff member must contact the next person to come and sign up. Everyone is required to work 2 full weekends unless they have a signed agreement with another staff member to work their w/e. It has gone very well and nearly everyone gets what they want. The unit manager approves requested time off before the sign up goes out. The second week of sign up, the schedule is re-evaluated by the staff and shifts are evened out. The UM then makes final changes if any and posts it as the final schedule.

I work on a 35 bed med/surg unit. our nursing unit and assignements are divided into two teams. Each team of off-shift nurses tape their reports for the on-coming shift. Team one tapes in our exam room and Team two tapes in our Nurses'lounge. When we gave verbal reports, report could take up to 1 hour and we found that patient care was interrupted. By taping, the night shift remains on the floor to answer lights and pass meds ect. No one leaves until report is finished so that questions can be answered or updates can be given. Our Team leader listens to both reports. Report now takes approx. 15 minutes (30 minutes tops) We have found this to be more time efficient and patient care is more consistent.